88 adult males held in a cell with a maximum capacity of 41 at a migrant detention facility in Texas. This photo was released Tuesday, as part of a report by the Office of the Inspector General on DHS needing to address dangerous overcrowding and prolonged detention of children and adults. (Department of Homeland Security - Office of Inspector General)

The Trump administration’s migrant detention centers are so overcrowded and kept in such squalid conditions that one senior U.S. official recently described them as a “ticking time bomb" for disaster.

The alarming account from the unnamed official was included in a damning report released Tuesday by Jennifer Costello, the acting inspector general of the administration’s own Department of Homeland Security.

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The 14-page report, which features shocking photos of dozens of migrants crammed into tight holding cells like cattle, said the administration must take “immediate” action to alleviate the “dangerous” conditions, which includes hundreds of children being detained way longer than the 72 hours allowed under federal law.

“We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained,” Costello wrote.

Costello’s report comes as congressional Democrats are calling for a purge of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency — which operates most migrant detention centers — in the wake of revelations that thousands of its officials have used a secret Facebook forum to post racist and sexually explicit posts about migrants and Democratic members of Congress, including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“It is indisputable that the views reflected in this online group are contributing to the inhumane treatment of detainees. This culture has to be rooted out,” New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez, on the verge of tears, said during a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, adding that a thorough investigation is essential to “smoke them out of their holes and remove them from the agency.”

Congressman Jerry Nadler speaks at a press conference about the actions of Border Patrol agents in Manhattan on Tuesday. (Danielle Hyams/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, speaking at the same press conference, said top CBP officials need to be held accountable for the poor environments migrants are being kept in.

“The fact that migrants can be subjected to such conditions, such torture, such deliberate torture, is a symptom, a consequence of the culture of deliberate contempt that starts at the top with our president," Nadler (D-N.Y.) said. “I think that some of the people, some of the higher-ups should be subject to criminal prosecution on child abuse.”

Included in Costello’s report is a photo of 88 male migrants being held in a cell with a maximum capacity of 41 at the Fort Brown station in Texas. Some of the men are wearing surgical masks. One man can be seen pressing a piece of cardboard against the glass with the word “help” scribbled across it.

Costello’s team of investigators visited five facilities operated by CBP near the U.S. southern border and reported that most adults being held at them had not been given the opportunity to shower for weeks. Many of them had not received anything but bologna sandwiches to eat, according to the report.

Perhaps most alarming among Costello’s findings was the revelation that 826 children had been held for longer than the 72 hours permitted by the Flores Agreement — a human rights decision that President Trump has tried to revoke.

At a facility in McAllen, Texas, 165 children had been kept in custody for longer than a week, Costello said.

Several of the facilities visited by Costello’s team did not provide hot meals to the kids, according to the report.

The disturbing findings are expected to put increased pressure on the administration to improve its detention practices — especially considering six migrants have already died in government custody since October.

Ocasio-Cortez toured a CBP facility in El Paso, Texas, on Monday. She said migrants held there are being forced to drink out of toilets, while federal agents laughed at her and other members of Congress on the tour.

Ocasio-Cortez, who’s been vehemently critical of the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda, was a particular target of CBP agents using the secret Facebook group that was exposed by ProPublica this week.